Psychologically I travel mainly on pre-existing roads for thoughts and feelings. I got to know the local, single track roads during infancy, childhood and adolescence and they still occupy the unconscious mindbrain (eg how to moderate a discussion and cook a cheese sauce). Less travelled are the academic and advisory superhighways that were built while acquiring three university degrees (eg Zoology, Agricultural Extension and Education) and working in six countries.
I am a human being and thus a social being. For many years this involved my ancestors fitting in with my social group of 50-100 stone-age foragers in the African savannah. But then the neo-cortex evolved and language came with it. Metaphorical single track roads and superhighways flourished and gave rise to a dynamic churn of myths and magic. In quick succession there was settled agriculture, city states and the Divine Right of Kings.
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| John Knox |
Fast forward to 16th Century Europe. The Catholic Church was mired in scandal about the selling of indulgences and this led Martin Luther et al to establish the Protestant Reformation and create the Protestant work ethic. This was brought to Scotland by the humourless Ayatollah John Knox and is still alive and active in my present day unconscious. The devil finds work for idle hands. The Godly are busy-bodies. The main thing is FAITH.
Fast forward to 18th century Scotland and the Scottish Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was a European phenomenon but Scottish intellectuals played a large part in driving it forward. The work ethic was alive and well but its justification was modernised so as to embrace humanism, empiricism, materialism and rationalism. The movement thus promoted the efficiency and effectiveness of the scientific method. It also provided an ethical but ambiguous justification for the hard nosed ‘business’ of empire building – missionaries saving souls and capitalists making huge profits. The Lord helps those that help themselves. The main thing is REASON.
Fast forward to the 20th century. I was born in 1949 in a fishing village in NE Scotland – a brother between two sisters. My father was a butcher who went bankrupt; he ran a concert party. My mother was an auxiliary nurse who often worked nights; she liked her Bingo. We lived in the local council housing estate. One of my father’s sisters was an unmarried primary school teacher who ensured that I studied broadly and with enthusiasm. Family legend has me reading Bertrand Russell when I was four.
Fast forward to the 21st century. What I say and do is rooted in my conditioning as part of a family, of a range of communities, and of nation states. It is as if morality memes manage my units of speech and actions. (A meme is a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition and replication in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.)
Some memes come from external socio-cultural sources while others are home grown. Some are very old and may be hard wired while others are recent creations. Sometimes it feels as if there is an infinite supply of them in that several are more or less vigorously attached to every passing unit of speech or action. I have not yet figured an all inclusive typology of morality memes but the following lists give a flavour of what is involved. The first group is from my early years, the second group from later.
- All social groups involve a hierarchy which puts the good and great in the top positions. These are the powerful shakers and movers. Lesser beings do what they are told rather than think for themselves
- All children and most women should be seen but not heard
- Officials are honest, selfless, hard working, and care about their customers
- The devil finds work for idle hands
- A waste of time is a waste of money
- The love of money is the root of all evil
- God watches and tallies your every thought and deed - 24/7
- There are better ways to be human
- The poor (in spirit) will be with us always. Society must care for the vulnerable
- Social groups of various sizes are ruled by elites who are constantly trying to control and exploit the masses. At their best they use elegant power and hegemonic forces to convince the masses that they are second rate citizens who should think and act in ways that support the status quo. Otherwise – what will people think?
- Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Many (most) of the elite are insensitive, greedy, selfish and cruel
- Culture canalises – to be free and enlightened you must know your self.
- Mindfulness is the way. No ‘I’, no problem
- The only certainty is doubt
- The only constant thing is change
- We are stardust become conscious
I have problems with authority. Politically I lean towards anarchy. The established good and great of the 1950 and 60s had fatal flaws. The rhetoric demanded that I think for myself as a free-born individual hippie but in reality I was expected to know my place and to toe the line. Several times when I expressed my personal understanding I was accused of plagiarism. I learned to keep my mouth shut other than for standard pleasantries. I felt that “I had a sermon that never would bear preaching”. The gist was captured in the lyrics to some of my songs.
There's a voice inside you, It's the voice of other men
It's the voice of people dead and gone
Whose preaching makes the world go on -
Or off
(1970) http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/cureblues/track-01.htm
Time when I was inside and the world was all tied up
In ribbons and preconditioned bows
Now I've opened my eyes and I surely realise
That trees are sometimes otherwise than green
(1973) http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/cureblues/track-05.htm
You'll find plenty question masters
Making quagmires of their brain
The man said, "There is no answer"
They said, "You are insane"
(1978) http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/highway/track-06.htm
We are social beings. We depend on each other for our survival at individual, family, community, tribal, national, global and planetary levels. It makes sense therefore that we should have morality memes to maintain the status quo as it drives along the never ending highway. But it also makes sense that there should be opportunities for opposing forces to carve out new pathways and offer new routes for approaching new realities. Evolution is a vital process that will not stand still.
I am now retired from the institution, of independent means, and thus free from having to tread the corporate tightrope. I have the time and the energy to slow down and (a) watch what my mindbrain (both conscious and unconscious) gets up to, (b) figure why it goes this way rather than that, and (c) compare and contrast the pathways carved out by both tenured and freelance cutting edge thinkers; especially those that embrace multidisciplinary consilience and root it in neuroscience and evolutionary psychology.
Another way of expressing it is to say that by heeding the morality memes while drawing maps of my psychological geography I develop a more holistic awareness of personal footpaths and global superhighways and thus become unstuck from parochial habits and limiting ways. Hmm!
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